Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a tuber that is commonly used for food and contains a variety of components, including starch, dietary fiber, protein, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and phenolic compounds. The potato plant produces phenolic compounds as a defense mechanism against bacteria, fungus, viruses, and insects. The phenolics in the tuber influence the taste and color of potato-derived food products, particularly, protein precipitated from potato fruit juice, thus rendering it less desirable for human consumption. With the world’s need for sustainable production and use of consumable protein, the present study aims to improve the quality of precipitated potato protein concentrate for human consumption using novel adsorption resins, through evaluating the effectiveness of the resins for the binding of phenolics in pure solutions as well as in potato fruit juice. Potato protein was precipitated from resin-treated potato fruit juice using acid and heat, subsequently, the total phenolic content of the potato protein concentrate was measured using the Folin-Ciocalteu spectrophotometric method. The results show that the resins are effective towards binding phenolics, but the degree of effectiveness varies from one resin to another, and from simple to more complex mixtures. It was also established that resin treatment influences both the yield of potato protein concentrate and its total phenolic content after precipitation. High yield of potato protein concentrate was related to a high phenolic content, while considerably lower yield resulted with a low phenolic content. Therefore, this suggested that a trade-off exists between the best degree of purity and quantity of protein concentrate recovered.